Adjustable guide and track for sliding door



Jan. 7, 1958 v. J. BUKoLT ETAL 2,818,597

ADJUSTABLE GUIDE AND TRACK FOR SLDING DOOR Filed Feb. 4, 1954 F Il INVENTOR5 23 VCTOR dBu/ 00' "/6 Mo 1. Axf/fv @EAM ATTORNEY United States Patent O pplieafion February' 1954, serial' No. titsg 4 claims. (cl.16==s7) This invention relates to horizontally slidable doors or panels for cabinets and analogous manufactures made of weed.

Seme cabinets and 'ether articles of furniture or the like niad'e 'f' weed are more extensively provided with sliding panels than with hinged deci-"s in order to give ready access to the interiors of such containers or receptaclesybut after a short period of use it vfrequently happens that these sliding 'panels or doors bind and do not slide easily. Such poor performance may be due to various causes such as warping, swelling or shrinkage of the lumber, sagging of the frame or other distortion of the cabinet, etc. While various means have been proposed for adjusting such sliding doors to overcome this drawback, they have been rather complicated and expensive.

The object of this invention is to provide an extremely simple and inexpensive means for adjustably supporting and guiding horizontally slidable panels or doors in wood cabinets and the like, the structure being such that the panels may not only be initially installed at a low cost, but may be quickly and easily adjusted to slide freely if the cabinet should become distorted.

With the above and other objects and advantages in view, the invention resides in the novel combinations and arrangements of parts and the novel features of construction hereinafter described and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which show the present preferred embodiments of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a front view of a portion of a cabinet or the like embodying the invention, parts being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 22 in Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail of a portion of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the adjusting screws.

Referring more in detail to the drawings the numeral denotes generally a cabinet or the like having an opening in its front or side closed by one or more horizontally slidable panels 11. In ifurniture cabinets such as the one illustrated, there are usually two panels or door members disposed in forwardly and rearwardly spaced relation so that when they are in their closed positions they will slightly overlap and close the entire open front of the cabinet, each panel being slidable in further overlapped relation to the other to expose portions of the interior of the cabinet. Each of the two panels shown is made of wood and is of rectangular shape, and each may be provided with a suitable handle or handhold conventionally represented at 12. The cabinet illustrated includes a top 13, a bottom 14, a rectangular body having four corner posts or legs connected by upright walls 16 on three sides, the fourth or front side being open and closed by the sliding panels. The front opening of the cabinet may extend horizontally from one front corner post or leg to the other and vertically from an upper guide member or rail 17 to a lower guide member or 2,818,597; Patented Jan. 7, 1958 ice 2 rail 18 which latter may form Va part of the bottom of the body as seen in Fig. 2. T'lie panels or door members are thus disposed within a rectangular frame which in# cludes the upper and lower guide members and upright side members.

The guiding means for the top of the panel or panels may be variously constructed but as shown there are two parallel and laterally spaced channels 19 which extend longitudinally of the upper member or rail "17 and face downwardly to receive the top portions 4of the panels. The latter slide freely in these guide channels which are deep enough to permit some upward adjustment of the panels as later described. As shown, the channels are formed by a depending stop strip or lange 20 at the rear of the member 17, a` parting strip 21 between the twopanels and a front stop strip which may be a piece of molding, the strips 21 and 22 being removably secured to the bottom of the member 17.

The improved means for supporting and adjusting each of the panels comprises a longitudinal groove or channel v23 routed or otherwise formed in the top of the lower track member or rail 1*'8 immediately beneath the panel, the groove receiving the lower ends of at least two longitudinally spaced pin-like supporting elements which are preferably wood screws 24 screwed into the bottom of the panel. The track channels 23 may be of inverted T-shape in cross-section and into the arms or branches of their cross portions 25 are slid metal strips 26 which form wear resisting lbottoms `for the channels to slidably support the lower ends of the screws. Since the longitudinal edges of the strips extend into the wider lower poritons of the channels they will be prevented from lifting or rolling out of the channels. Either or both of the supporting elements or screws 24 may be formed with enlarged heads 27 with rounded extremities 28 to contact with the metal strips and reduce friction, since the two screws or pin-like supports on each panel support the entire weight of it. The height of the heads 27 is about that of the vertical side wall portions 29 of the inverted T-shaped channels and their width or thickness is a little less than the spacing of the portions 29 so that the heads move freely between the portions 29. Instead of forming screw driver kerfs in the screws, their heads are preferably of octagon shape in cross-section, or they have llat side faces to be engaged by a wrench or similar tool. to facilitate screwing their pointed ends 30 into the bottom of the panels. It will be apparent that by properly adjusting either or both of the screws on a panel or door member it may be caused to tilt in a vertical plane to adjust it to the square of the cabinet should the latter become distorted. Thus a vertical edge of the door or panel may be brought into parallelism with the adjacent upright side member of the frame. This `adjustment also facilitates the initial installation of the panels or doors and reduces the cost of manufacture. Further it allows for considerable variations in the sizes of the parts; and the invention is especially useful in the production of the less expensive grades of cabinets and furniture.

While the panels may be inserted and removed by removing the strips or moldings 21-22, the latter may remain permanently attached to the top member 17 if the channels 19 are made sufficiently deep to enable the tops of the panels to be pushed upwardly into them a suflicient distance to permit the screws to be moved into and ont of the channels 23. In order to prevent the space between the bottoms of the panels and the top of the lower member v18 from being seen at the front of the cabinet, a molding strip 31 may be removably secured by brads or -screws along the top of the front portion of the member 18 in slightly spaced relation to the front of the outermost panel. A similar molding strip 32 may be removably fastened to each of the front legs 15 so that when'fthe panelsV or doors are in their closed positions the outer vertical edges of the panels will not be visible. It willbe understood that the panels may be of any length and that any number of the supporting and adjusting screws may be used on each panel.

From the foregoing, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, it will be seen that novel and advantageous provision has been made for carrying out the objects of the invention, and while preferences have been disclosed, attention is invited to the possibility of making variations Within the .scope of the invention as claimed.

We claim:

1. An adjustable, guide and track means for a horizontally sliding door of a cupboard or like article of furniture comprising a horizontally disposed track member having in its ltop a longitudinally extending trackforming channel with a bottom and opposed sides, and at least two rigid elements adapted to extend downwardly from the bottom off a door at longitudinally spaced points, the lower projecting portions of said elements extending into said track channel and being'slidable therein with their lower extremities resting on the bottom of the track channel to sustain the weight o-f a door, the opposite sides of the channel preventing lateral movement of the lower end of the door, at least one of said elements 4 being a wood screw adapted for threading in the bottom of a door and adjustable to permittilting of the door in its vertical plane.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which said screw has an enlarged guiding head adapted for sliding engagement with the opposite sides of the channel.

3. The structure of claim 1 in which said screw has an enlarged guiding head adapted for sliding engagement with the opposite sides of the channel, said head being provided with a rounded bottom and with means for engagement by a turning tool.

4. The structure o'f clairn l in which each of Said elements is a wood screw with its threaded end adapted for vertical adjustment in the lower edge of a door to permit tilting of the latter in its vertical plane.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 206,434 Graves July 30, 1878 1,514,845 Fischer Nov. 11, 1924 1,684,706 Kauth Sept. 18, 1928 .2,584,874 Haas Feb. 5, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 208,923 Great Britain Jan. 3, 1924 

